One hit enough for South Hills in baseball victory

WEST COVINA >> South Hills got only one hit off Charter Oak’s Lorenzo Carillo but that was enough to pull out a 2-0 win over the Chargers on Friday afternoon to stay atop the Sierra League baseball standings.

The Huskies (7-1-1, 2-0) scored both runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and that was all they needed as South Hills starter Gavin Velasquez pitched the shutout.

“I wouldn’t say I had my best stuff,” Velasquez said. “I got two quick outs to start the game then they got back-to-back singles. I told myself to not worry about that, just focus on the next hitter and get out of the inning. That happened a couple of times but I just tried to keep my mind-set and get my team a victory.”

Carillo held the Huskies hitless through the first five innings but a line single by cleanup hitter Jon Ayala in sixth drove in Gabe Chavez to break up the no-hitter and the scoreless tie.

Chavez was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. A perfect sacrifice bunt by Quinn Cotter moved him up a base. Francisco Ramirez drew a walk and Jake Johnson was sent in to run for Ramirez. Ayala then drove in Chavez and the Huskies got an insurance run when Johnson stole third and came home on a sacrifice fly by Marcos Campos.

“Jon has his battles where he gets frustrated,” first-year Huskies coach Darren Murphy said. “But, he never gets cheated. When Campos was up we ran a hit-and-run but he took the pitch because it was off-speed and down. That was a good call because Jake stole third and the sacrifice gave a little breathing room but Carillo was fantastic. He did a really good job and that was a tough loss, we tip our caps to him.”

The top of the sixth inning was just as bad as the bottom for the Chargers (4-5, 0-3). They had runners on first and second with one out when the Huskies turned a 4-6-3 double play. The out at first was close and Chargers first-year coach A.J. Garbick protested the call until he was ejected from the game.

“Carillo was throwing a no-hitter until the sixth,” assistant coach Eddie Tamayo said. “Then he faced a little adversity when the umpire made a really bad call that everyone obviously saw. It kind of went downward from there.”

The Huskies appeared a little flat to start the game but that could have had something to do with them flying from LAX to Charleston, S.C. today for a five-game tournament next week.

“It’s impossible not to think about,” Murphy said. “We’ve had meetings every day this week about things we have to take care of and when it’s 15-16 year old kids anything is possible.”

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Velasquez threw only 85 pitches as he scattered six hits, struck out four and pitched his third complete game of the season while lowering his already minuscule 0.32 ERA.